Central Pa. company to build 600,000-square-foot warehouse next summer, another warehouse to follow

Posted Oct 21, 2019

D&H Distributing has moved into its new headquarters at 100 Amp Drive in Lower Paxton Township. The 50-acre campus with two buildings will house about 750 employees.
October 15, 2019.
Dan Gleiter | dgleiter@pennlive.com

Central Pennsylvania’s largest private company has just moved into a new headquarters in Lower Paxton Township. But, the relocation of its headquarters isn’t the only move for D&H Distributing.

Company officials hope to break ground next summer on the more than 600,000-square-foot warehouse in Lower Swatara Township. D&H expects to open the new center in two years. When it opens it will move from its current warehouse on Katie Court in Susquehanna Township.

“I think one thing that it is really important is [for] both facilities it was critical for us that we found something in the right geographical proximity so that we did not disrupt our co-owners lives,” said co-president, Dan Schwab last week in an interview at D&H’s new headquarters in Lower Paxton Township. “We really have a family-oriented culture ... because of that we really wanted to look hard for a place that was in close proximity. We were very fortuitous to find this available land so that none of our employees would have more than an extra five or 10 minute commute.”

D&H employees have a 36 percent ownership share in the company through D&H’s employee stock ownership plan.

The new warehouse at the Jednota site along Rosedale Avenue will be more than twice the size of the current warehouse on Katie Court, which stands at about 280,000 square feet.

“There was an opportunity that we were fortunate to find, where there was available land near the airport that is going to allow us again stay within the local central Pennsylvania community, not disrupt the current employee base," said co-president, Michael Schwab. “But I would say we’re probably at two years from now … looking at relocating to that facility, which would be twice as large as our existing facility.”

Parts of the land of the 276-acre property were rezoned in March to industrial park zoning. The formal land development plan has not been submitted to the township yet and the company plans to submit it in the upcoming months. However, earlier this year D&H outlined its plan for the property at a public hearing for the zoning change.

That plans include two buildings – the main building will have 655,000 square feet with possible future expansion of 182,000 square feet, and another building will later be built on the southern part of the property and will be 400,000 square feet. The second building will be leased to a third party until D&H needs it for expansion. An office building on the site has two tenants that have indicated an interest in remaining at the facility and D&H plans to keep that building as is.

D&H moved its headquarters from Seventh Street in Harrisburg to 100 and 200 Tech Drive in Lower Paxton Township last month. The reason the company plans to move its warehouse is for the same reason it relocated its headquarters: It is simply just running out of room.

“Right now, because we’re at capacity, we have to send a lot of our shipments to our warehouses in Chicago and Atlanta because they have more space," Dan Schwab said.

The Katie Court facility employs around 200 people. In one year that number would jump to 240 employees at the new facility, and in five years that number would jump to 367 employees, D&H officials told the township earlier this year.

“Having a larger facility we’ll be able to hire a lot more people locally and which in return will allow us to utilize the location better,” Dan Schwab said.

The company has warehouses in the Harrisburg area as well as Atlanta, Chicago, Fresno, and in Canada. D&H opened a new warehouse in the Vancouver area in Richmond, British Columbia in 2017. About 450 people work at D&H’s distribution centers. Overall the company employs around 1,200 people.

D&H has customers in every state and distributes more than 75,000 products, including computer notebooks, tablets, workstations, printers, monitors, networking and security products; video game consoles like the Xbox, Playstation and Wii; gaming notebooks and accessories; home and outdoor products; sports and recreation products including items for hunting, fishing and camping; televisions; small appliances, and more. The company sells thousands of different technology products to hundreds of different retailers throughout the United States and Canada. Some of the company’s largest partners include Dell, Hewlett Packard, Lenovo, Microsoft, Cisco, Samsung and Amazon.

D&H distributes thousands of products including e-sports systems like the one pictured.
October 15, 2019.
Dan Gleiter | dgleiter@pennlive.com

D&H Distributing, which is now based in Lower Paxton Township, is one of the largest private companies in Pennsylvania, ranked fifth in the state and 109th in the country by Forbes on its 2018 list. D&H moved its headquarters last month to a 240,000-square-foot facility near Jonestown Road. It had previously been located at its longtime facility on Seventh Street for 67 years.